Do your best BW inkjets matched or surpass your best BW wet prints?

[ROL]

... butt tightening routines.

There already seems to be plenty of tight butts on this forum. Now, sphincter tightening photography, is another matter entirely.

[IanG]

I can print either and apart from paper differences can match well. I prefer darkroom prints which I find very much faster! I can have a final print in the wash in the time I takes to scan and do a basic edit. Mmaybe it.s because I printed commercially for a number of years but I can read a negative and get very close to the final exhibition print from my own negs easily.

It may be quite different for others.

Ian

[AuditorOne]

I can print either and apart from paper differences can match well. I prefer darkroom prints which I find very much faster! I can have a final print in the wash in the time I takes to scan and do a basic edit. Mmaybe it.s because I printed commercially for a number of years but I can read a negative and get very close to the final exhibition print from my own negs easily.

It may be quite different for others.

Ian

Drat, it would be nice to be that good. It still takes me 5 tries to get a contact print from my 8x10 negs that I'm happy with.

[IanG]

Drat, it would be nice to be that good. It still takes me 5 tries to get a contact print from my 8x10 negs that I'm happy with.

The more contrast you require in a final print usually the harder it is to reach the result you are after with darkroom prints. It also takes more practice to dodge and burn contact prints.

A negative that needs a lot of dodging and burning in a darkroom will also need much greater time post scanning in Photoshop or an equivalent.

3-5 prints to get the desired final result is fairly typical in a darkroom, most of mine are closer 3 occasionally just 2 but the very few difficult negatives 5 isn't untypical.

Ian

[Mark Barendt]

One thing about my inkjet I don't like is that the grays tend to be kinda blah. Don't know how to describe it. But some prints with a lot of gray look bland. The silver prints seemed to have more gray separation. But nothing concrete on this, just a feeling.

IMO what you are probably seeing here is not intrinsic. More likely, it was just a choice made by the person who printed that particular photo and probably not representative of the medium itself.

I tried the inkjet route and created some very fine looking prints, I gave up on printing inkjet myself because it was a pain to use (plugged jets etc...) and cost. I found that I could upload the file to a lab for printing and have the prints shipped for less and never have to deal with plugged nozzles or any of the other maintenance.

[paulr]

Employees all over the world are using innovative strategies to stay on their feet and exercise while doing work at the computer. No reason digital printers have to just sit there and grow their butts.

And of course you can power the whole computer setup with a bike-driven generator. If your output drops below 200 watts or so, the machine shuts down and you lose all your work, which is really wonderful motivation to keep pedaling.

[Christopher Barrett]

A negative that needs a lot of dodging and burning in a darkroom will also need much greater time post scanning in Photoshop or an equivalent.

I have to disagree with this. In particular, one body of work I did years ago gave me fits in the darkroom. At the time I had about 10 years of darkroom experience and was employed as the black and white printer at Hedrich Blessing here in Chicago. I was working on a series of street work I shot very quickly on Tri-X with a Leica CL and my exposures were not always perfect. I was doing tons of burning and dodging in the darkroom and was still never happy with the images. Years later, after I acquired a drum scanner, I revisited the images and the Howtek was able to capture the full range of the negatives, allowing me to make inkjet prints of the entire series with none of the local manipulations that were needed for the Silver Gelatin prints. If you really want every bit of shadow information from your negatives, I feel that high quality scans (done by an experienced operator) are going to yield better results with less effort. Next up, I want to try some Light Jet prints to Fiber Base paper!

The work I referenced is here by the way: http://christopherbarrett.net/personal/street_work_01/

[bob carnie]

Sandy could capture all his hot air and use it to power his Exposing Unit. And that is on a slow day.

And of course you can power the whole computer setup with a bike-driven generator. If your output drops below 200 watts or so, the machine shuts down and you lose all your work, which is really wonderful motivation to keep pedaling.

[bob carnie]

Street work with Leica is a much harder printing experience than typical work. I find this style of printing the hardest to master and do. If you want fibre base prints from Digital files contact me as my shop was the first making fibre murals using a Lambda Exposing unit. I like these prints very much as they have a tremendous DMax- paper is Galerie G4. Since you are controlling the contrast density and dodge and burn via PS this is a perfect media choice for documentary photographers.

I have to disagree with this. In particular, one body of work I did years ago gave me fits in the darkroom. At the time I had about 10 years of darkroom experience and was employed as the black and white printer at Hedrich Blessing here in Chicago. I was working on a series of street work I shot very quickly on Tri-X with a Leica CL and my exposures were not always perfect. I was doing tons of burning and dodging in the darkroom and was still never happy with the images. Years later, after I acquired a drum scanner, I revisited the images and the Howtek was able to capture the full range of the negatives, allowing me to make inkjet prints of the entire series with none of the local manipulations that were needed for the Silver Gelatin prints. If you really want every bit of shadow information from your negatives, I feel that high quality scans (done by an experienced operator) are going to yield better results with less effort. Next up, I want to try some Light Jet prints to Fiber Base paper!

The work I referenced is here by the way: http://christopherbarrett.net/personal/street_work_01/

[Tyler Boley]

One thing about my inkjet I don't like is that the grays tend to be kinda blah. Don't know how to describe it. But some prints with a lot of gray look bland. The silver prints seemed to have more gray separation. But nothing concrete on this, just a feeling.

I agree with Mark's point, this is not intrinsic to the process. Which brings me to one of my pet peeves.. many have not come to terms with the fact that good ink printing requires a commitment, just like any other "craft". Many have spent decades in the darkroom, probably most produced in the first decade long since worthy only of the trash, then spend no time really learning inkjet and make a judgement about the entire category based on entry level output.
T